What is Castle Shadowcrag?
It's a castle adventure written as a privately-commissioned work. Stuffed with playable material, it features the Plane of Shadow, a revolt against aristocrats, a family curse, and intense, original combats. The heroes explore a partially-looted and haunted castle, find a legacy weapon, and set things right. The adventure includes:
- 7 essays on design secrets
- new shadow spells, new monsters, and color art,
- professional maps of the complete castle and dungeons
In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, patrons commissioned artists and writers. There was no such thing as a "publisher". People who wanted books hired someone to write them. The Open Design approach applies that to RPG adventures.
And who are you, exactly?
My name is Wolfgang Baur. I've been professionally involved in the RPG field for over 15 years, starting at TSR and later as a full-time designer at Wizards of the Coast. I've designed Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, Frostburn, Dark*Matter, the Book of Roguish Luck, and many others.
I worked with China Miéville to translate his Perdido Street Station setting for Dragon #352. I've published 13 adventures with Dungeon magazine.
What do I get when I join?
You see the inside track, and get answers to your design questions. For a $25 donation, you get:
- The complete adventure delivered as a PDF, plus all updates and errata.
- Access to a large set of private posts discussing the design.
- Influence over the design from outline to final text.
- Detailed design essays on topics chosen by the patrons.
- An adventure not sold to the public!
January 12 2007, 02:01:46 UTC 5 years ago
When is the deadline?
If Castle Shadowcrag will be delivered on March 1st, when's the last date available to donate money? Also, will this d20 project use non-OGC materials? It mentions legacy weapons, which are closed content, if I recall correctly.January 12 2007, 04:17:24 UTC 5 years ago
Re: When is the deadline?
Probably Wednesday, February 21st.However, if I get too many last-minute patrons I'll cut it off at 99 patrons. I don't want this project to grow too large. I think we're at 79 or 80 patrons right now.
January 12 2007, 04:27:21 UTC 5 years ago
Re: Legacy and non-OGC
Regarding legacy weapons, there's some "of legacy" items that my co-author put into the Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, but the playtest response was lukewarm. I don't know if the problem was the "of Legacy" rules, but I'm using a different approach here.The Shadowcrag legacy weapon is tied to the core story, is highly magical, and is sought after by many groups within the adventure. So, it would be easy to expand with the "of Legacy" rules if you wanted.
I understand your concern about non-OGC material, but given that I've written a bunch of material now found in the various Monster Manuals and planar supplements, I think you'll find the quality of the new monsters and spells is at least as good as current WotC materials. Because I'm still writing current WotC materials as well. :)